By Ali Sawafta and Nidal al-Mughrabi
NUR SHAMS, West Bank (Reuters) – A Palestinian ambulance driver was killed as he prepared to evacuate the wounded in a raid by violent Jewish settlers and at least 12 Palestinians died in a another incident in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian authorities announced on Saturday. .
These incidents came as violence erupted in the region and fighting continued in Gaza.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said the 50-year-old driver was killed by Israeli fire near the village of Al-Sawiya, south of the city of Nablus, while heading to transport wounded people during the attack on the village.
It was not immediately clear whether he had been shot by settlers. There was no immediate comment from the military.
In another incident in the Nur Shams area near the Palestinian town of Tulkarm, health authorities said at least 12 Palestinians, two of whom were identified by Palestinian sources and officials as a shooter and a 16-year-old boy, were killed during a prolonged raid by Israeli forces.
A number of militants were killed or arrested, the Israeli military said, and at least four soldiers were injured in exchanges of fire.
The Tulkarem Brigades group, which includes activists from many Palestinian factions, said Saturday that its fighters had exchanged fire with Israeli forces.
At least three drones were seen flying over Nur Shams, where Israeli military vehicles were massed and bursts of gunfire were heard.
In Gaza, Israeli strikes hit the town of Rafah in the south, where more than a million Palestinians have taken refuge, as well as Al-Nuseirat in central Gaza, where at least five houses were destroyed, and the Al-Jabalia region to the north, health officials said. » and Hamas media said.
The Israeli military said its troops were carrying out raids in central Gaza, where they were engaged in close combat with Palestinian fighters.
In total, Israeli strikes in Gaza have killed 37 Palestinians and injured 68 in the past 24 hours, Palestinian health authorities said.
Fighting has continued in Gaza despite the withdrawal of most Israeli combat forces earlier this month from southern areas, where the death toll has exceeded 34,000, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Rafah is the last area of Gaza where Israeli ground forces have not entered a more than six-month war aimed at eliminating the Islamist group Hamas that rules the enclave, following Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on October 7, which killed some 1,200 Israelis. and foreigners.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced broad international opposition to the planned attack on Rafah, where the military says the last organized Hamas brigades are located and where the remaining 133 Israeli hostages are believed to be held.
The war in Gaza has overshadowed continuing violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, including regular military raids against militant groups, Jewish settler rampages in Palestinian villages and street attacks by Palestinians against Israelis.
The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed the deaths of 13 people since Thursday evening in Nur Shams, an area that is home to refugees from the 1948 war and their descendants. One dead man was identified by Palestinian sources as an armed man. The second was a 16-year-old schoolboy, according to Palestinian officials.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has condemned the United States for effectively preventing the United Nations from recognizing a Palestinian state by vetoing it this week in the Security Council.
In an interview with the official Palestinian news agency WAFA, Abbas said the Palestinian Authority would reconsider its bilateral relations with the United States.
The West Bank and Gaza are among the territories the Palestinians are seeking for an independent state. U.S.-brokered peace talks collapsed a decade ago.
(Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem and Nidal al-Mughrabi from Cairo; editing by Mark Heinrich, Frances Kerry and Mike Harrison)
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